Biography
Sioned Williams
Since 1990 Sioned has combined her
position as Principal Harpist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with recitals,
concerti, broadcasting, recording, researching and teaching both in the UK and
abroad.
Best known for her solo work, Sioned constantly expands her repertoire by
researching and editing inaccessible music, and commissioning and premiering new
works; her performances at prestigious festivals and venues have gained her
international recognition.
Sioned has performed all the major concertos, as well as more unusual repertoire
in major concert halls, on radio and live on television; a small selection
includes: Debussy’s Danses Sacrée et Profane with The City of London Sinfonia,
Panufnik’s Sinfonia Concertante for flute and harp, and Alwyn’s Lyra Angelica
with the BBC Concert Orchestra; Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp, and
Henze’s arrangement of C.P.E. Bach’s I Sentimenti with William Bennett and the
ECO. Sioned has appeared frequently with BBC NOW, most notably in several
performances of Mathias’s Harp Concerto and his Melos for flute and harp; live
on TV playing Thomas’s Adagio for Harp and Strings, and most recently, in Saint-Saëns’s
Morceau de Concert. With the BBCSO, she recorded Martin’s Petite Symphonie
Concertante, and the slow movement of Rodrigo’s Concerto Serenata for a DVD. She
also performed Glière’s Concerto with The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in
Denmark. In recent times, Sioned gave the UK premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Musik
fur Harfe und Orchester with Sinfonia 21, Josef Jongen’s Harp Concerto, and
William Alwyn’s Lyra Angelica with the BBCSO. The world premiere of Amir
Mahyar Tafreshipour’s BBC commissioned concerto A Persian Reflection which was
performed with the BBCSO in February 2006 was very highly praised. All concertos
were broadcast on radio.
Particularly well-known for her work with choirs, Sioned has performed music by
Liszt in Hungary with The Liszt Choir, premiered a work by Ridout with the choir
of Christchurch, Oxford; played Janáček, Rands, Britten and Malcolm Hawkins with
the BBC Singers, and Bernstein with Westminster Abbey and with The Bach Choir.
Regular performances of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols include Winchester
Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Cantamus, King’s College Cambridge, Clare
College, Cambridge, The Sixteen and Tenebrae. Sioned was highly praised for her
performance of Janacek’s Octenas with the BBC Symphony Chorus in a late night
Prom in 2004, and in 2005, Warner Classics issued a CD of this performance. The
April 2005 BBC Music Magazine included a CD of Holst’s Rig Veda with Sioned and
the BBC Singers, and in the 2007 Prom season, Sioned performed Brahms with the
BBC Symphony Chorus. Sioned has given recitals with many singers and
instrumentalists including Michael Chance, Martyn Hill, Steven Isserlis, Neil
Mackie, Aurèle Nicolet, Mark Padmore, Andrew Watts, Jeremy Huw Williams and
Roderick Williams.
Many of Sioned’s commercial recordings on Hyperion, EMI Classics, Collins
Classics, Meridian and Proudsound have won awards and accolades. Apart from her
solo CDs, she has partnered James Galway, The Holst Singers, Lisa Milne, Anthony
Rolfe-Johnson, Frederica von Stade, The Choir of Kings College Cambridge, The
Sixteen, Westminster Cathedral Choir, and Winchester Quiristers on disc.
For Trinity College of Music, Sioned devised the renowned Professional Studies
Course for Harpists, and holds the position of Senior Fellow in Harp Studies
there. In July 2003, Sioned received her fourth fellowship, from the Royal
Academy of Music, for her contribution to music. In Spring 2005, Sioned was a
consultant for the Geneva Conservatoire of Music in setting up a comprehensive
harp department there, as well as being the harp specialist choosing a Head of
Harp for the college. Sioned’s recent Master-classes include the National Youth
Orchestra of Great Britain, an International Summer School in Southern Ireland,
at The Royal Academy of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Sioned frequently adjudicates competitions and award schemes -she was on the
panel for the string final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in February
2004 (on BBC 4 TV), and writes articles and reviews; she has composed
sight-reading for the ABRSM, and selected music for their diplomas. In 1999
Sioned became the first Welsh member of the prestigious Board of Directors of
the World Harp Congress, and has just been made President of the UKHA. At the
end of 2003, Sioned was the first harpist to perform in Iran since the
revolution. The solo recitals of music from nine countries and four centuries
were sold out, and she received a standing ovation and outstanding press
interest.
Enjoying a varied career, Sioned has appeared hundreds of times on radio and
television, including documentaries and ‘chat shows’ in Britain and abroad. Her
BBC Radio 4 series Affairs of the Harp was repeated on BBC World Service. Sioned
has an interest in words and music and appeared with Richard Burton in Dylan
Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, with Joan Bakewell and Edward Fox in an evening of
T.S.Eliot, with the group Irish Heritage in entertainment from some of the
finest Irish poets and musicians, and in readings by living Welsh poets
including Dylan Thomas’s daughter. Sioned’s own scripted story John Thomas,
Harpist to Queen Victoria was performed nationwide with the RSC actor Peter
Jeffrey.
At the start of her career, Sioned enjoyed performing in chamber groups such as
Endymion, Divertimenti, Gemini, Park Lane Music Players, Spectrum, Uroboros, and
Berlin Philharmonic Ensemble. At 17, she was working with professional
orchestras, and during the years immediately following full-time study, she
mainly worked with The Philharmonia and The London Sinfonietta as Principal
Harp. During this period she won countless competitions and awards including
Park Lane 20th C. Young Musicians, ISM,
Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Boise and Mendelssohn Musical Foundation, and
Concert Artists Guild (NY).
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